HC asks Centre to make AIIMS in Patna functional

Patna: The Patna High Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to make the proposed Jayaprakash Narayan
AIIMS in the city functional by October 2, 2012.

A division bench comprising justices Prakash Chandra
Verma and Aditya Kumar Trivedi directed the Union Health and
Family Welfare Ministry to ensure that the AIIMS being
constructed in Bihar`s capital was made operational by that
time.

"Any failure in this regard will be treated as a
matter of contempt," the bench warned.

The Council for Protection of Civil Rights and Liberty
had filed a PIL in 2005 requesting the court to order
necessary direction for construction of Jayaprakash Narayan
Institute of Medical Sciences at Phulwarisharif in Patna, the
foundation-stone of which was laid in October 2004.

The Centre had at that time promised that the proposed
hospital would be made functional in the next three years, but
nothing was done.

After the court`s intervention, the state government
provided 100 acres of land for the construction of JPN AIIMS,
the petitioner`s council M P Gupta said.

In the course of his argument today, Gupta alleged
that the Centre had adopted dilly-dallying attitude towards
completing the building for AIIMS and sought the court`s
directive in this regard.